FUCK it! oh fred what have you done, you’ve ruined your veneer of professionalism and the wholesome family appeal of the project by saying fuck on a public site… twice!

so my friends I been thinking about how we are not gonna be those people who make that successful community art event in a shop, that becomes a local talking point, that is a solid and beautifully conceived response to the specific context… and we are not gonna be that art collective from Bournemouth that creates a closing down sale in the busiest retail street in Britain… but that is fine because we’re not gonna be those people who just stop and say oh we tried but didn’t happen.

the way I see it is… we have designed and printed all these products… we have got a shit load of glue sticks on the way… so lets cut them out, stick them together and get them out there, I think all of us are already thinking in this direction… and I think unless anyone can state otherwise… we are not getting a shop and we don’t have the time or probably money to build one especially with all the health and safety issues that would entail...so let make portable market stalls and for 4 or 5 days pitch up outside empty shops and even functioning ones… if we want we can give out fake money to get people involved and could have explainers like before or we just be weird street sellers giving away products because our shop have gone under… we can move around or have more than one around town, and see what we can get away with… put up lots of signs… yes we will as ever consider what we do and how we present the work, how the specific context will create certain interpretations of the piece but it doesn’t have satisfy anyone but ourselves… we’re doing it, we’re paying for it.

and we can talk in our presentation about what is lost through this realisation of our idea, what is gained and what is changed… all it but we will have achieve something.

I think we should just make this happen, afterwards we can consider its achievements and failures but while making happen lets keep key our minds what we want to make for this project… and what we individually wanted… to know these things and find ways to realise the ones that can be achieved.

to get us started on key goals:

The audience we wanted was the general shop going public of Bournemouth town centre… so that’s where we will do it.

We wanted to highlight the absurdity of selling, the empty promises and accepted and inherent bullshit of marketing and product packaging…

We wanted to question the inflated sense of desire and need created in this capitalist system… to provoke thoughts around value and worth

We wanted to use the products as talking points on different idea relating to consumer culture and role as consumer… the products still convey the ideas even outside a fake shop frame work… and the audience will still be able to take home and posses the product container… it is less clearly centre on their role, less obviously self-reflective as they would not be entering a confined performance space… but still scope for this to be a key experience for the audience.

We wanted to draw attention to the empty shops and question their future use… we can by making our pieces happen in front of them… and before the event would have been more balanced and positive well maybe our experience of trying to make things happen in these spaces has given us a less positive view for the future of these spaces for community/ art uses … sign saying closing down… another saying coming soon another shop providing you with the things they think you want but you probably don’t need( some thing more catchy i guess)

We wanted to make a fun, lively and engaging experience.. we will

We wanted to take outwork outside of a gallery context.. it will be

We wanted to make work to response to a space and to the context of that space… it’s still the high street

We wanted to promote inquisitive nature of people, to get people thinking and questioning their experience… we can do this

We wanted to art work that didn’t require an art education to relate to … you even need to know it was art to become involved

We wanted to utilise humour and the common understanding of buying and selling products to make work that was inclusive.. we are doing that

We wanted people to be able engage on many levels, that audiences of different ages could become part of and interact with the experience of art… it will be different but still this will be set to happen

For me it’s about turning our conversation around this context into a work that does something beyond us… not change the world type stuff but make it considerably different for a period of time, give an experience this about and create for that place.

Most importantly to finish Project’ Shop’

Option update: I have just spoke to martin and he is speaking to Burlington arcade people and meeting them of Tuesday and says we still have options in Poole, we need to be realistic though all of these aren’t definite and may take more work and time than we have now, so I believe the market stalls are our best option.

Either way I think we should have a market stall at the Town center event on saturday the 24th so we have 16days till that… lots to do.

So we have found ourselves in a very different place than we set out to be… and after the initial excitement of actually getting a space and it being London and WOO… my head started to hurt as my brain battled to find a way to make it happen and to make the core ideas and elements of the product work here… but for most this didn’t work to begin with and many just can’t work in this new context. Probably more than rest of you I have felt like this has not been a wholly positive step, maybe this is because my role and intention and the many things I wanted to get from the project where intrinsically linked to it being in Bournemouth and in a closed down shop…

That is just my brain being stupid and not wanting to let go of something I really cared about… and it’s not even being realistic… we have work for nearly a year now developing this strong multifaceted art work and we tried to make it happen and through reasons mostly beyond our control it didn’t work… and I’m really pissed off about that and I have passionately listed the things the work won’t be now and they were important things but screw being a pessimist… and I will not let my brain turn what is an amazing opportunity and experience for all us into negative….

7) decide what its we are doing, what it is about, the intention and how its going to fulfil those – key areas:the space/the performance/the framing write press release

9) make leaflet… press release rehashed… two side magazine looking sheet with 2 articles one about project ‘Shop’ the other OutsideIN and a few ads on there from world of shop… maybe the procrastination game, something fun and jokey, a lonely heart from Brian?

10) make website put content on

11) make props

12) make shelves and stands

13) makes signs and displays

14) get and brief actors

15) 300 smaller products to glue in Bournemouth

21st April GET THIS AND US TO LONDON… van and car and coach or train.

then if we can glue in the space in Selfridges and if not some where else in London… we have 1000+ products to glue in 2.5 days plus install shelves and other elements.

please look on the google calendar… and add and question it for next 3 days so can make changes, after that we stick to it and changes will be made only if outside factors change, not if we don’t get stuff done… because the plan needs to be realistic and considered. This is what I have tried be so far. speak to me if you want me to explain my reasoning and I can change things if they make sense too.

ROLES-Before London

This is just to help us we are of course working together on most things.

Patrick

Money/vouchers- design and printed (let me not costs and numbers)

Shelves- designed, made and flat packed

props- makes some and talk to model makers

decided your role when its happening- what you want to be doing and what you want to get out of it.

Jack

Cardboard- sourcing and making sure we have enough cardboard

press release- help write it

leaflet- project ‘Shop’ article/write-up with ellie s and me

Van- get it to Bournemouth

Shelves-designed, made and flat packed

the space- do a sketch up, work with Ellie’s and Patricks to get plan done for Friday 9th

decided your role when its happening- what you want to be doing and what you want to get out of it.

Ellie KP

Products-making sure they are printed and being cut to schedule

signs and displays- design and make

decided your role when its happening- what you want to be doing and what you want to get out of it.

Ellie S

Bags and T-shirt logos and elements- by Sunday 11th/Monday morning

props- make

signs and displays- design and make

leaflet- project ‘Shop’ article/write up with jack and me

decided your role when its happening- what you want to be doing and what you want to get out of it.

Martin

press release-help

leaflet- OutsideIN article/write up with me

performance- work with me, my dad to get make it happen and the way we what it!

decided your role when its happening- what you want to be doing and what you want to get out of it.

Ashley

Cash machine

website

Fred

press release- write

leaflet- OutsideIN article/write up with me

props- make

performance- work with martin, my dad to get make it happen and the way we what it!

decided your role when its happening- what you want to be doing and what you want to get out of it.

plan for running the event

little later I’ll put up a preliminary plan of action/roles for set up in london

Doing this project has been and continues to be an all-consuming experience and if I have learnt anything from working on Project ‘Shop’ with this group then it is this…

to always listen to advice, to try at everything you can do and the things you think you can’t, to learn from every mistake and success, to push your ideas and yourself, to be bold and persistent, to never stop trying and to never stop learning, but most of all I have learnt…

to never give up and be open to CHANGE!

Martin will talk about struggle to secure an empty shop for the event ‘Shop’ and he will let you know the ins and outs and many avenues we have tried to make this community project happen…. but to cut it short, even working with Bournemouth Council and Bournemouth Chamber of Trade and Commerce we haven’t got a location available to us in Bournemouth to do it!

So the Bournemouth community art event known as ‘Shop’ dies!

but a new ‘Shop’ is conceived and growing, it has all the fun, excitement and interaction of the old one but it will be in LONDON!

WOO!

Thanks to the wonderful female artist duo The Girlswe have the chance to revive ‘Shop’ in ﻿Selfridges Ultralounge in Oxford Street, which The Girls are taking over for the whole month of April!

hi all… thought I would put this up to remind us of time when the idea of ‘Shop’ was just that and an initial idea… and it was the groups reaction to the retail context… from our old Facebook group…so things have moved on a lot and it is and we are so much better, we have all changed and i think have learnt loads doing this.

When the highly developed and considered event ‘Shop’ happens in may it will have been about a year since this convo… proof that good ideas aren’t always easy to make happen!

Long time no see countrymen- we have a piece of press devotion, well, attention anyway- in the form of Bournemouth University’s student run newspaper. With details of when we plan to run project ‘Shop’ and a positive outlook on what we want to achieve; Adam Parris-Long has summed up the project quite nicely (or was it a quote from us?)…

“Through this public accessibility, the team hope to examine the differences between what a consumer buys and what they actually get”

I found this archive of patents Americans have taken out on their obviously ingenious inventions, like this; the Bunny Syringe. Because nothing says child friendly like a small bunny with a massive needle running through it.